Bloghacking
Another example of viral marketing working for small business:
Children’s bedding e-tailer Javis Davis is about to reach order number 10 thousand, accomplished with an advertising budget of only a few hundred dollars per year. Owner and designer Mary Lou Cothran said, “Since opening in 2000, the force driving the success of our business is the kind of marketing money can’t buy … word of mouth.”
Chat rooms and message boards on websites like BabyCenter, iVillage, and UrbanBaby are fertile breeding grounds for this form of viral marketing. Cothran has discovered that when women make a great find, they are quick to tell their friends, relatives, and coworkers. “I recently took an order from a client in New Jersey who said nine women in her office had ordered from Javis Davis.”
Online blogs also help spread the word. “We sponsored a contest on the popular Daddytypes blog that generated a lot of buzz,” says daughter and web designer Mary Peyton Peppo. Other daily shopping blogs such as Cool Mom Picks and Urban Baby Runway have featured Javis Davis custom bedding on their sites reaching thousands of potential customers looking for products that are unique.
“We do our best to give them something to talk about,” says Cothran. “People come to us expecting great customer service and exceptional quality at a very reasonable price, and we don’t disappoint. A three-piece Javis Davis custom-crib set costs an average of $300. The large fabric swatches, online interactive ‘Design Studio,’ and in-depth design consultations are icing on the cake. Viral marketing sounds sort of scary, but it’s really just people telling other people about great products they have found. Other than being mentioned on Oprah, it’s the best possible advertising a company could have.”
Technorati Tags: viral, viral marketing, buzz, blog marketing, forums, word of mouth, wom, small business, mommy bloggers
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
2 Responses to Viral marketing power – Bedding seller hits web sales mother lode
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hey Chris,
This is Bonny, we met at the SF Bloggers’ meetup couple days ago. It was nice talking to you…and I have a questions about this viral marketing. It seems like any word of mouth thing that i’ve done always goes to my friends and that’s it…I’m not sure if they told anyone…how do you even start ?
Bonny
Hey gorgeous,
One step is do what you just did – visit other people’s sites and comment about the post. You will probably pickup some traffic. You might even check out other art blogs to find other interested visitors.
As for viral, another way of getting traffic is to have your friends add your site to del.icio.us or digg or reddit. Getting on the front page of Digg will do a lot for your site. Also, if you created a design of the month/week/day that people could forward to each other might get more recommendation. And there is always getting some celebrity to wear your work.